Special report on PCB industry: strong downstream demand + general expansion of production capacity, improved prosperity

Three key sectors: IC carrier board, automotive board, Miniled board
IC carrier board: the first level packaging substrate with "technological homology" with PCB

The IC carrier board is directly used to mount the chip, and can provide functions such as electrical connection, protection, support, heat dissipation, and assembly for the chip. The packaging substrate is used as a level 1 packaging material and is located upstream of the printed circuit board processing. Packaging substrates usually have technical characteristics such as thinning, high density, and high precision. With the rapid development of technology in the electronic circuit industry, the integrated functions of components are becoming more and more extensive, and the high density requirements of electronic products on PCB are more prominent. We expect that in the future, driven by data processing centers, packaging substrates and multi-layer boards will grow rapidly. According to the 21st semi-annual report of Shennan Circuits, packaging substrates will become the main driving force for the growth of the PCB industry in the next five years. Prismark predicts that the compound annual growth rate of the global packaging substrate output value will reach 9.7% from 2020 to 2025, of which the annual output value of packaging substrates in China will be 9.7%. The compound growth rate reached 12.9%. At the same time, the global output value of packaging substrates will also increase from 15.6% in 2020 to 18.8% in 2025.

According to Prismark statistics in 2019 cited in the 20th annual report of Xingsen Technology, the market capacity of the global IC packaging carrier board in 2020 is about 8.1 billion US dollars, and there are nearly 30 mass production companies. In terms of production locations, the global IC substrates are mainly produced in four regions: South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and mainland China. In recent years, the number of domestic mass production manufacturers has increased, but the output value is still small. The strengthening of the status of my country's packaging and testing industry, the improvement of semiconductor self-production capacity, and the country's promotion of the localization of key semiconductor components and consumables will accelerate the localization of packaging substrates.

Car board: automatic driving + new energy two-wheel drive

According to the prospectus of Shengyi Electronics, driven by the four major trends of the Internet, entertainment, energy saving and safety, the level of automotive electronics is increasing day by day. The cost of automotive electronics in mid-to-high-end cars has reached 28%, and the cost of automotive electronics in new energy vehicles accounts for 28%. The ratio is as high as 47%. In 2020, the global sales of new energy vehicles will reach 3.24 million units, of which about 1.37 million units will be sold in China.

According to the 2020 annual report of Xingsen Technology, the corresponding PCB value of each system in traditional automobiles accounts for 32% of the power system, 25% of the body electronic system, and 22% of the safety control system. It is estimated that the global automotive FPC market will reach 7 billion yuan in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 7.1%. Driven by the development of new energy vehicles, it has become a trend to replace wiring harnesses with FPCs for vehicles. In the future, there will be more applications of FPCs in vehicles. It is expected that the consumption of FPCs per vehicle will exceed 100 pieces.

Mini LED boards: Commercialization is well underway

MiniLED is a kind of LED technology. Its LED chip size is between 50 and 200 microns, which is the product of further refinement of small-pitch LEDs. Compared with ordinary LEDs, MiniLEDs have higher resolution, contrast ratio, and color gamut range, and are lighter, thinner, and more energy-efficient. The display applications of Mini LED are mainly divided into two types, one is the backlight direction, which is mainly used to help LCD display upgrade. Another application is the direction of self-illumination. Mini LED self-illumination is an upgrade of small-pitch LEDs and a transition to Micro LEDs. After the "General Technical Specifications for Mini LED Commercial Displays" was issued in June 2020, products equipped with Mini LEDs from many brands have gradually landed. (Report source: Future Think Tank)

With the continuous penetration of downstream markets, the MicroLED market will usher in growth in the future. According to Arizton data cited by the Prospective Industry Research Institute, the global Mini LED market will grow from US$150 million in 2021 to US$2.32 billion in 2024, with a CAGR of 149.15%. Mini LED substrates mainly include PCB substrates and glass substrates. According to Gaogong LED's point of view, the technical solutions of PCB substrates are more proficient and can be introduced into industrialization faster. At the same time, the yield rate of Mini products of PCB substrates at this stage is much higher than that of glass substrates. According to the CINNO Research official account, the global Mini LED backlight substrate shipment area is expected to increase to about 50 million square meters in 2025, with an average annual compound growth rate CAGR of 72.8%.